Quote:
Originally Posted by 100thmonkey
Merkhava, all of that is artificial.
Justice doesn't exist in nature, sin doesn't exist in nature. These are concepts invented by men.
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I can understand such a conclusion if your view of the Universe is that there is no God and that invisible things can't exist in reality as transcendant independent forces outside the human condition.
If God is not a Person from which proceeds intelligence, will, emotion, creativity and all the other characteristics of personality, then yes, you could probably conclude that the entire realm is just a deterministic machine, and you are just the sum total of chemical reactions going through the motions.
If God is a conceptual creation of man - an opiate of the masses to keep them submitted to tyrants - then I can understand how you can conclude there is no such thing as justice, no sin, no love, no joy, no mercy, no law, no soul. We could even say there is no mind and no such thing as life. It is all just an illusion of chemicals and electrical pulses in our brains. We could say no human being is intrinsically valuable, life has no purpose, and there is no such thing as hope. It is all human contrivance.
In fact, if the conclusion is that there is no sin, we could go on and say we need no judges, no police to protect us, no prisons to hold lawbreakers. We need no law, since there is no such thing as right and wrong, or good and evil. We should just live and let live. If your neighbor chooses to live as he sees fit, just let him, even if it means he invades your home, steals your possessions, harms your family and kills you for trying to stop him from living his life the way he wants to.
No... I can't have such a view of the Universe. I have to consider there is purpose and meaning and order to it. There has to be an answer to WHY?
I'm a former nuclear engineer. I am very aware of how organized and intricately balanced matter and energy are at the nano-scale. My current work is all about design and fabrication at the angstrom level. I look at the patterns repeating upscale from the micro world into the macro world of the solar system and galaxies. It amazes me. I look at the power in there and the design in nature and I have to acknowledge their is a Master Architect and He possess a great mind and a wonderful eye for beauty. And there is so much to it beyond what my five senses can perceive or my mind can contemplate.
There is so much out there that exists whether or not you or I am aware of it. It's there whether or not we believe it. It's there regardless of our acknowledgement of it as being true. What is there and what is true is because it simply is.
And there is so much more that IS than we can even begin to dream there could be.
The eye has not seen, the ear has not heard, neither has even entered into the mind of man the things that God has prepared for those that love Him.
Regards,
Merkhava